With the evolution of technology and more thorough research into how our brain connections develop and how we learn, researchers have drawn on information from brain scans, past research data, and new studies to help us better understand the most effective approaches to education.
As we learn more about learning styles and multiple intelligences, we have begun to realize that the “Text-based” learning approach that has dominated education since the late 1700s is, at the very least, inadequate to universally teach verbal and writing skills, especially to those of us who are right-brained, “Visual Learners”. Indeed, the Text-based approach can be criticized as unfairly condemning visual learners as dummies, thereby relegating them to second class status, and denying them entry into colleges. For over a hundred years, dominantly visual learners have, at best, been shunted to trade schools, if not totally denied advanced educational opportunities. With the advent of TV and multi-media, we have begun to address the creation of educational learning tool devices that are better tailored to people having diverse educational needs.
Researchers have found that the development of children's language skills in particular is affected by multiple developmental stages and stimuli (Koralek & Collins 1997). In another study, it was discovered that young people who can understand the letter-to-sound relationship had much higher comprehension, word recognition and spelling (Adams 1990). In addition, scientists have found that children can more easily understand new concepts during play because their hands and minds are engaged at the same time (Bruner 1999, Wood & Bennett 1999). Based on this and other supporting research, it is becoming clear that a key to language development in children is to not only provide interesting, educationally-rich, reading and writing materials, but to present multi-sensory active learning opportunities that empower the children to flourish on multiple levels.
Because of the considerable amount of research into learning processes and styles, there have been many educational products developed to help people learn to read and write. Some products help teach phonics in a visual and tactile manner (e.g., Edwards U.S. Pat. No. 6,669,478). Others teach spelling and letter order using tactile movable letters (e.g., Miller U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,541). However, these are piece-meal, non-integrated approaches.
Although a number of inventions offer multi-sensory learning experiences, none have effectively provided a multi-sensory experience which is strong visually, kinesthetically/tactilely/physically, audibly, cognitively/language-wise, and emotionally/socially. For example, one commercially available flash card-based system comprises 4″×7″ multi-layer cardboard cards having cartoon images associated with words that include finger-trace grooves formed by die cutting the outer layer of the card. All words are upper case only, there are no upper/lower case guidelines, and the writing area is small. The cardstock is only varnished, and therefore not robust. Nor are the cards capable of being personalized, that is, related to the learning child or his or her family. Finally, the illustrations are not real images; rather they are “politically correct” cartoon figures, for example, the “BOY” and “GIRL” are colored green, so as to not offend any race, creed, color, etc.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a learning tool that addresses the needs of both text and visual learners in the form of a multi-sensory, personalizable, learning experience that effectively teaches reading, writing, and word recognition to all learning styles via multiple developmental stages while providing a way in which the user's multiple and continued successes can be seen by others, thereby promoting self esteem and emotional development in children.